Craig Mazin just can’t help himself. The man who turned The Last of Us into HBO’s biggest gaming adaptation is now setting his sights on Baldur’s Gate, and he’s doing it without the people who made the game what it is. No pressure or anything.
Baldur’s Gate 3 didn’t just succeed in 2023. It dominated. Twenty million copies sold, all five major Game of the Year awards, and a cultural moment that reminded everyone why video games can be truly special. Larian Studios poured everything into making a game that honored its legacy while pushing the medium forward.
Now Mazin, who admittedly logged nearly 1,000 hours in the game and calls himself a devoted Dungeons and Dragons fan, is adapting it for television. The show will pick up right after the game’s events, which is both ambitious and terrifying considering there are supposedly 17,000 different ending variations. Good luck threading that needle.
The Larian Shaped Hole
Here’s where things get uncomfortable. Larian Studios won’t be directly involved in the production. Unlike The Last of Us, where Mazin worked closely with creator Neil Druckmann, or the Fallout series that brought in game developers for consultation, Baldur’s Gate is moving forward without its creators in any meaningful capacity.
The reason is pure business. Wizards of the Coast owns the Baldur’s Gate IP, not Larian. The studio just licensed it to make the third game. So technically, Hasbro’s subsidiary can greenlight whatever adaptation it wants without asking permission. Legal? Absolutely. A good idea? That’s the question keeping fans up at night.
Larian founder Swen Vincke put out a diplomatic statement on X, saying his team worked incredibly hard to make Baldur’s Gate 3 “worthy of its legacy” and hoping the show would enjoy the same passion. He mentioned Mazin reached out for a chat, which sounds like the bare minimum of professional courtesy rather than genuine collaboration.
When Passion Meets IP Rights
Mazin’s credentials are solid. Chernobyl was exceptional television. The first season of The Last of Us captured something special that game adaptations usually fumble. But the second season drew criticism for taking liberties that didn’t sit well with fans, and now those same people are side-eyeing this Baldur’s Gate announcement.
The technology behind modern gaming has evolved to the point where stories in games can be just as complex and nuanced as anything on television. Baldur’s Gate 3 proved that with its branching narratives and character depth. Stripping away the people who understood those intricacies feels like trying to recreate a recipe without talking to the chef.
Fans on social media aren’t holding back. One user described the concern perfectly: worrying the show will be “a familiar face with a stranger’s heart.” Another flat out said they don’t trust anyone other than Larian with those characters. The skepticism isn’t about Mazin’s talent but about whether anyone outside Larian can truly understand what made Baldur’s Gate 3 resonate so deeply.
The Double Edged Sword of Fandom
Mazin’s thousand hours in the game should count for something. Being a Dungeon Master shows he understands the world these stories come from. His track record proves he can handle complex narratives and respect source material. But there’s a difference between being a passionate fan and being the creator who lived and breathed every decision for years.
The promise to reach out to the original voice cast is nice, but it feels like window dressing when the actual development team is watching from the outside. Those actors brought the characters to life, sure, but Larian wrote them, shaped them, and understood their arcs in ways that only creators can.
Eurogamer’s Vikki Blake suggested fans show cautious optimism, pointing to Mazin’s experience and passion. That’s probably the healthiest approach, even if it’s hard to shake the feeling that something important got left behind in the licensing negotiations. When corporate IP ownership trumps creative collaboration, everyone loses a little bit of what made the original entertainment special.
The real test will be whether Mazin can capture the heart of Baldur’s Gate without the people who gave it one in the first place.
